The Rooms
by LoveHP
Summary: Ginny world is turned upside down when she is forced to read the Harry Potter chapter in The Life & Lies of Albus Dumbledore. Ginny learns that after the war there are no happy endings & the truth about Harry comes out when Andromeda questions him. After all, she's read the book too, & she needs to protect Teddy. Adult themes, child abuse, PTSD. 3 one-shots.
1. The Reading Room

**Disclaimer: Seriously, even though I wish I were JKR, Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. pouts**

**A/N: Thanks to pepperylime for betaing this story. **

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**The Reading Room**

Ginny sat forlornly near a tiny attic window. After centuries of dust sticking to the glass, the grime had formed a layer so thick, Ginny needed to chisel it off with her pocket knife. There was only a circle of clean glass now and squinting one eye, she felt as though she was staring through a tunnel.

At the dark end of the tunnel, Ginny sat, trapped in a world where darkness and death threatened to engulf her; her world was spreading lies, slowly smothering lives, killing the truth bit, by bit. It reminded her of a picture she found in a Potions book of mercury inching its way up a man's veins. Pain was etched on his face as he succumbed to the quicksilver. It was too late before he realised his life was over.

"You face either unity or death," Umbridge had said over the wireless a few nights before. Ginny had watched her father grow pale. He didn't go to work the next day and she was forced to stay with her Great Aunt Muriel, where she was now, in the attic, staring out into a world she longed to be.

At the other end of the tunnel, where light, freedom and the sense of immortality were, the trees were as green as ever, the sky full of fluffy clouds and Ginny saw two gnomes hobbling through the manicured lawn, still with their white bunny ears on their heads and cotton tails stuck onto their bottoms. She giggled. It was Fred and George's idea to dress up the gnomes for Easter, much to Aunt Muriel's dismay: "I said throw them into the river not dress them up for Carnivale," she barked.

"Or for the Sydney Mardi Gras," Fred had thought out loud as he held onto two hideous male bunny-gnomes.

Ginny's smile faltered as the gnomes disappeared into a burrow near a gnarled oak tree. At least they didn't have to worry about You-Know-Who.

Her mind wandered towards Hogwarts and what her friends thought when she didn't arrive via the Hogwarts express. She thought about poor Neville looking after the student body and the DA under the Carrows and Snape's regime.

Ginny, Luna and Neville had been the driving force behind the DA since Harry had set off on his own mission with Ron and Hermione. But with Ginny now trapped at her Aunt Muriel's and Luna recovering from her abduction at Shell Cottage, her heart ached that Neville would be all alone now. She was frightened that he would be killed.

_No, I mustn't think about them_, she said to herself. Then an image of Harry's cold pale face with dark blood on his neck swam into her vision. "No! Harry is fine. I shouldn't think about him either!" Then Ron's lifeless eyes flitted through her vision, then Hermione… she swatted the images away, screwing her eyes shut.

Sitting in Aunt Muriel's country manor was beginning to bore and frustrate Ginny so much that dark thoughts and dreams were beginning to plague her mind more than usual. The house was beautiful, no doubt. The countryside of Dorset was magnificent, but at the same time it felt extremely cold and uninviting. She knew if she wandered outside the protection of the house she'd be caught by the Snatchers. She wanted to go home badly. However, being the only precious girl in the family for generations had Aunt Muriel keeping a close eye on her.

She waited, though, Ginny waited, for the sign that Harry would return to Hogwarts and fight with the DA. She had a feeling that it would be soon. Ginny curled her hand around the DA coin in her robes, closing her eyes. For a fluttering moment she thought it had warmed a little. Then she realised that it was only her imagination. As butterflies of disappointment filled her stomach she released the coin.

Sighing, she viewed her watch. It would be four soon, a daunting time for the entire household. Aunt Muriel liked to be read a book until six o'clock, when the house elves would have dinner set and ready. The aunt wanted everything neat, tidy and on the dot, so much so, the elves lived in a constant fear of being received clothes and would scurry off once they heard her voice.

A shrill voice carried up the floorboards of the attic. "Ginevra…"

"Speak of the devil…" Ginny groaned. She didn't move, choosing to wait while the silence permeated the attic like the specks of dust floating around.

"Ginevra? _Ginevra_ Where are you, girl?"

She stood up, walked past the thousands of old Daily Prophets which sat in piles. Some were so old they had turned yellow, others were crumbling to pieces. Ginny spotted an interesting headline, while a moving picture of iceberg slowly drifted by in the picture underneath:

ICEBERG OR GRINDELWALD? WHAT REALLY SANK THE TITANIC

She could spit on this newspaper these days. "Bunch of snivelling prats," she said coldly, kicking a stack. A couple of recent editions with Harry's picture on the front cover toppled onto the floor. She picked them up and Harry frowned at her, desperately trying to escape the frame.

HARRY POTTER, HERO OR VILLAN

Or

HARRY POTTER WANTED FOR ALBUS DUMBLEDORE'S MURDER

Her rage had built momentum; she threw the papers across the room, its pages fluttered to the floor like rain drops.

"Ginevra, come down at once!" her aunt yelled.

She stomped her way down the attic stairs and through to the main stairwell. Two noble black marble lions sat at each side of the landing in the hall. They both stared at her haughtily and began whispering to each other. Ginny held her chin high. Ignoring them, she whisked her red hair into the reading room.

Great Aunt Muriel was sitting in the largest chintz chair near the fireplace, sipping tea with a wrinkled pinkie in the air. The gold rimmed curtains were fluttering in the afternoon breeze. Ginny was glad, she needed all the fresh air she could get while reading the dastardly book she was reading these days. A tiny house elf with drooping ears was pouring out another cup of tea, presumably for her. Her hands were shaking so much that the tea was in danger of splattering onto the floor. Aunt Muriel narrowed her eyes at the elf and seemed to be counting down the seconds that she would throw the elf outside with a single sock.

Her aunt looked very ancient and fragile, but in truth, sometimes she had more energy than Ginny could ever muster. She'd play the _oh-my-bones-are-killing-me_ phrase at least ten times a day. Ginny had gotten so used to it now that she was reduced to rolling her eyes at her aunt. While the rest of the day, Aunt Muriel would scoot around the house like she was on rollerskates

Ginny cleared her throat loudly as the dazzling gems that hung around her aunt's neck and ears were beginning to send her into a trance.

Aunt Muriel's red rimmed eyes swivelled up; she coughed at the site of great niece. "Where in Merlin's death stick have you been girl? Are you trying to kill me with your insolence?" The house elf in command of the tea service was so frightened she squeaked and vanished from the room.

"No Aunt Muriel," Ginny droned, "I'm sorry I'm late."

"You should be sorry," she spat, her brown eyes narrowing even more so, until they looked tightly shut. "Well hurry up and read me my book! I've been waiting all day for the next chapter. I'd read it myself, but the arthritis in my fingers are killing me these days. Plus Rita's book is so heavy… it might slip through my hands and crush my fragile hips."

Ginny scowled, shifting her weight onto her right foot.

"And don't scowl," Aunt Muriel barked, her tea cup clinking onto the saucer. "It makes you look ugly."

Ginny poked her tongue out at her Aunt Muriel as soon as she had looked away. Ginny sat down, a revised copy of the book, since the downfall of the ministry; The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore was perched on the coffee table. Dumbledore's picture was smiling wistfully out of its frame. She thought sadly how much the world she loved had changed since his death.

It was a large book. Ginny had already been forced to read 399 pages of the thing. She picked it up, flicked through the pages so disrespectfully that a couple of pages ripped. She didn't care; the book deserved it for the matter. She was reading absolute filth.

"We are at page 400," Muriel sniffed.

Ginny huffed, fingers stopping at the right page. She gazed at the chapter heading and felt a chill enclose her heart.

_Dumbledore's__ Protégé: The Boy Who Lived_

"Oh God," Ginny breathed. Her heart ached for Harry, just looking at the words made her remember the times they'd kissed. She wondered if Harry remembered her birthday gift in his darkest moments. Then an image of Harry dying alone invaded her mind. _No! Stop it!_

"Well get going!"

Ginny started and nearly dropped the book. She cleared her throat and began to read.

_"Well, faithful readers, we've spent 399 pages examining the life and lies of Albus Dumbledore from infancy to his extraordinary exploits, manipulations and scandals throughout his existence, until we've reached, in the last chapter, the first war waged by You-Know-Who and Dumbledore's role within it. We realise now that Dumbledore was much more cunning and devious than many people have ever dreamed of. A man full of secrets it seems, hidden away like a Boggart in a broom closet._

_"This chapter relates to the story of one particular boy Dumbledore had taken a liking to: Harry Potter. Many of you have begged me to write a book on this mysterious boy, but alas, that will come later. Now, I shall reveal Dumbledore's relationship with The Boy Who Lived."_

Ginny had a really bad feeling about this chapter.

_"Since the moment of birth, Harry James Potter has been a marked man. The story of his disfiguring scar, the tragic death of his parents and near destruction of You-Know-Who has been drilled into minds since the day it happened. But is his story as innocent and heroic as it seems? Is Potter really 'The __Chosen__ One?' There are too many questions, but so little answers in return._

_"There have been countless theories and rumours regarding Harry Potter. Some dispute that Potter is a dark wizard, or the next dark lord. This would explain why You-Know-Who wants him dead. Potter is, after all, a Parselmouth—"_

"Good gracious is he now?" Aunt Muriel said with her hands clapped over her heart.

Ginny looked up with a deadly stare. "If it wasn't for his Parseltongue, I'd've been long dead."

Aunt Muriel raised an eyebrow. Ginny didn't want to explain why, so continued to read against better judgment.

_'"Yeah, I was in first year when something started attacking Muggle-borns at Hogwarts,' explains Zacharias Smith. 'Really scary stuff… then Potter kept turning up in the crime spots at the exact moment someone was hurt.' _

_"Was it just coincidence or suspicious circumstances? Mr Smith continues with his observations. 'The teachers started up a Duelling Club, and one of the kids set a Snake onto Potter, but he started speaking a weird language and all of the sudden the snake lunged itself onto a Muggle-born kid. Dumbledore didn't look much into it.'"_

"Stupid idiot,"Ginny gritted through teeth. _"…Potter has psychotic fits of rage," _she read onShe was so incensed at Smith that she skipped over the next few sentences. Her aunt didn't seem to notice_ "…And exhibits signs of paranoia, which many healers at St Mungo's agree that the boy needs to be locked away with careful observation. Not to mention numerous traumatic dreams many have witnessed. But Dumbledore, in his duty to protect all the students at Hogwarts, always seemed to ignore Potter's problems and the concerns of parents about him. _

_'"Haunted by his past, he is, that Potter boy…' Geraldine Finnigan says. 'Me own son sleeps in Potter's dorm… I've always been scared for me son's safety even since that boy, Diggory's death.' She shakes her head, a worried look filling her motherly face. 'I was ready to believe Potter was 'The __Chosen__ One,' after the fiasco a couple of years back, but what's he really done to protect us? I don't know the pixies from the doxies anymore these days.'_

_"On a darker note that doesn't evolve dreams and visions, Potter may be disturbed enough to have murdered…" _Ginny sighed. She knew this wasn't true. _"…To have murdered Dumbledore himself. He was seen running away from the murder scene."_

Ginny paused, but Aunt Muriel waved her hand around silently to keep going.

_"As a journalist who has spoken and gotten to know this boy more closely than any other person in his life, I have heard his deepest and darkest secrets. I have looked into those dazzling green eyes and saw a dark soul without any hope." _Ginny snorted.

_"Disobedient and rebellious, Harry Potter is definitely a dangerous and troubled teen. From his tragic childhood to his years at Hogwarts, how did Dumbledore shape the boy into what he is now, a menace to the ministry and the wizarding world itself?_

_"Dumbledore's relationship with the boy was over the top and sinister. No other headmaster or headmistress had taken a liking to one particular student like Dumbledore had. I feel there is no doubt but to believe that he had spindled a web of lies and corruption so big, while manipulating Potter in many ways, that the boy had felt daunted, even threatened into drastic action."_

A whole load of crock, Ginny thought.

_"Starting from the very beginning, Dumbledore had been a mentor to Potter's parents. He wanted to protect Lily and James Potter from the Dark Lord because of a prophecy which concerned their son as 'The __Chosen__ One,' who would destroy You-Know-Who. Lily's and James's involvement within the Order of the __Phoenix__ allowed Dumbledore to form a close friendship and suggested they be placed in hiding._

_"Though, Dumbledore's hopes they would survive did not go according to plan and the Potters had perished when You-Know-Who had forcibly entered their house in Godric's Hollow. Only their one year old boy, Harry, had survived suspiciously with only a ugly scratch to his forehead._

_'"The poor boy,' Batty Bathilda croaked. 'I stood on those ruins the night Harry's parents died. I can still hear him screaming for his mother from the second floor, minutes after You-Know-Who was vanquished. I held him in my arms. I wiped the blood from his forehead -- he had a nasty cut there.' And what of Dumbledore? I asked Bathilda. 'I sent him an urgent message. When he arrived… I'd never seen Albus so pale, so distraught since his sister died. He took the boy from me and gave him to the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid. Albus told him to keep the boy safe until arrangements were met.'" _

"I don't remember that night much." Aunt Muriel described. "I was celebrating so much I drunk four bottles of sherry." Ginny ignored her as Muriel laughed at her own memories.

_"…Dumbledore, still in grief after losing his two finest Order Members, (more so out his own guilt that he didn't do more to protect them), took his own actions against ministry advice to place Harry into the guardianship of his Muggle Relatives, the Dursleys. Therefore, the night after the infamous Halloween of 1981 when Harry Potter became the ward of Petunia (Lily Potter's sister) and __Vernon__ Dursley, Dumbledore wiped his hands clean from the blood that stained his hands. _

_"The moment the boy had been placed in his Muggle relative's care -- a bunch of scrupulous, conservative twits who have waged war against anything magical -- Harry Potter was in a very bad spot indeed. Starved of food, of love, hated and ignored, this was the routine treatment Potter had to live with every single day. He never knew that his parents had been murdered. Never knew he was even a wizard until his Hogwarts letter. From the tender age of one, he had been forced to sleep in the cupboard under the Dursleys stairs. There he would sleep and be locked in for most of his life. He was basically a waste of space and a shame to the Dursleys. _

_"Does this all sound too familiar, readers? Remember Kendra locking up poor Ariana in the attic, alone and in the dark just because she was a squib?" _

"Merlin's nads! Did Potter really… no wonder he snapped and killed Dumbledore, goodness if—"

_"Well Certainly…" _Ginnycontinued with a loud voice, almost scaring Muriel into a heart attack_. "Dumbledore knew what had gone on in Potter's home. Perhaps he drew it from his own experience, condoning this maltreatment to occur. Or he had told the Dursleys to lock him away to drive the darkness out of the boy, because he had secretly known Potter would be dangerous in later years."_

This is just stupid, Ginny grimaced. Harry had never told her that he had slept in a small cupboard. So she was sure this was a lie. She had only heard about the smallest bedroom that he had slept in, and the time Fred, George and Ron had helped him escape. Dumbledore knowing that was happening? Ginny felt this was a big fat lie.

_"Nevertheless Dumbledore kept a close, yet blind-eye on the Boy Who Lived until he received his letter to attend __Hogwarts__School__ of Witchcraft and Wizardry."_

Ginny paused again, quickly glimpsing at Aunt Muriel. She seemed positively radiant with happiness. Sickening, her aunt suddenly reminded her of Umbridge.

_"To get more information on Harry's childhood, I spoke with Arabella Figg -- A crazy cat-loving squib -- who lives close to Harry's childhood home. She generously allowed me into her home. Old Figg, certainly remembers the boy very well." _

Ginny wondered how on earth Rita had really gotten herself an interview with one of their order members. She imagined Rita turning up uninvited and once Arabella opened the door, Skeeter just forced her ugly face through it.

_'"He was the smallest in his class. Tiny and shy... and it didn't help that he slept in the cupboard under the stairs,' Arabella reminisces from within a mountain of cats clawing at her bare arms. 'No one wanted to be friends with him and the neighbours would hurry their children into the house at Harry's approach. _

_'"The Muggles he stays with -- horrible bunch -- wanted to stamp the magic out of him. They always tried to shut him away in the house. It was rare he was allowed to go outside and play. And it was always a treat for him when he came over to my house. I was the only one with any magical link, even though I'm a squib. I felt it was in my duty to at least give him some hope of a better world.'_

_"Poor neglected Potter by the age of eleven had become a delinquent amongst the neighbours. Nobody wanted to touch him with a ten foot Firebolt. He was all alone, undernourished and abused. _

_"It was no wonder then that he needed love and starved for any sort of attention, good or bad. From eating stale cake at a Squib's house, to setting a snake onto his cousin Dudley at the zoo or blowing up a relative with underage magic, to becoming the mysterious fourth contender in the triwizard cup and witnessing the murder of Cedric Diggory. There is also his rebellious activity against the ministry, his almost expulsion for underage magic, and numerous other bad boy activities. But Potter's troubles only get worse with his direct relationship with Dumbledore._

_"Once Harry Potter had set foot into the ancient castle, Dumbledore was unusually close to the boy. The headmaster followed him, spied on him, gave Harry gifts and had several private meetings with him in ungodly hours of the night. Potter also had set up a defence group called the Dumbledore's Army in secret, to fight against the ministry, all of course forced upon Harry by Albus himself."_

LIES! Ginny yelled in her mind. It had been Hermione's idea.

_'"Absolutely foul!"__ Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, and Minister of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission kindly recalls. "That boy is an evil, lying little fool. Professor Dumbledore used him like a puppet for his own bidding. Potter should never be trusted by anyone, too brainwashed by Dumbledore. I knew that he was having meetings with Dumbledore, but I'm afraid, I had never caught them conspiring against the ministry once I had been positioned in the school.' _

_"These secret meetings continued through the years, their peak occurring only last year in the boy's sixth year when Dumbledore was reinstated as headmaster."_

Ginny just loved how Skeeter conveniently left out so many details and so many parts to stories that made the book extremely bias.

_'"I'd see Potter going to Dumbledore's office after dinner every other day and he'd never come out until the wee hours of the mornings. He'd look more worried than when he went in. It made us all wonder what they were doing in there," Gregory Goyle a fellow student at Hogwarts said, scratching his locks of luscious hair._

"That's because Dumbledore was talking about his mission with Harry, you great fat twit!" Ginny mumbled.

"What did you say Ginevra?"

"Nothing, Aunt Muriel."

"Then stop blibbering and read, girl. This is getting juicer and juicer; we'd be drowning in book binding glue soon."

Ginny breathed in deeply and exhaled._ "But what were they doing? _

_'"I reckon they were lovers," Pansy Parkinson, an attractive seventh year—'"_

Aunt Muriel gasped loudly. "My word…"

"Oh that's it! I'm not reading any more of this rubbish!" Ginny spat, dropping the book with a loud bang onto the coffee table.

Muriel looked as though she could kill kittens with her direct glare. "You will sit down and read the chapter, missy! Or I shall tell your mother."

"She'd agree with me that this book is a load of—"

"I'll give an elf clothes," she sniffed.

"Are you blackmailing me, Aunt Muriel?"

"I'd never do such a thing." She seemed to slightly regret those words. "Now sit down, if you please, and read."

Ginny was still standing, hands in fists, looking furious. She must have been blushing because she felt her cheeks heat up. She thought about the poor house elf. Ginny had never envisioned Aunt Muriel as a cunning witch. She sat down, slowly, flicked through the book to the right page and cringed as she read on.

_'"Dumbledore had that look about him, you know… he might've done good stuff and all for some people, but there was something really odd and creepy about him. I reckon he abused Potter and probably other kids too. I'm much more relaxed since he's death."'_

Ginny felt as though she was betraying Dumbledore reading these lies.

_"Lovers?__ A headmaster who was taking advantage of an underage boy under his authority? It was scandalous and certainly sinister indeed. But it does fit neatly into a Potter and Dumbledore conundrum: the countless secret meetings, the headmaster's willingness to forgo any punishment for Potter's misdeeds, the close eye on the boy he always had. Perhaps he did manipulate Potter for his own sinister deeds, he was after all the headmaster's favourite student and the ministry frowns upon any member of the Hogwarts faculty taking on favourites, let alone sexual relations with a student. _

"It makes sense now…" Aunt Muriel said, eyes wide and bulging a little. She sounded winded. Ginny scowled, wondering if this chapter would be the death of Aunt Muriel, either natural or murder, whatever succeeded.

_"Dumbledore was not married, had had a close attraction to many male friends, such as 'Dogbreath' Doge and Grindelwald himself. But to subject a vulnerable boy to abuse is malevolent. The ministry should investigate further._

_'"He [Potter didn't kiss a girl until he was 15, and that hadn't gone too well either.' Miss Parkinson replied, her eyes twinkling with sadness. 'I think he felt really weird around girls. I mean he would be if he was forced to do disgusting things with the headmaster." _

"This is the best book I've ever bought," Aunt Muriel said, hand still clutching her chest.

Ginny seethed. If she ever saw Parkinson again, she'd rip her to shreds.

_"This abuse seems to be what Harry Potter had known all his life. He was abused by men, particularly those of authority." _

What? Ginny thought to herself. What in…

_"I had come in contact with an old Muggle primary school classmate of Potter's by the name of Piers Polkiss. We walked around the old Muggle primary school grounds where they had gone to school. It was somber and eerie as there was no students that day. Piers told me: 'Potter had no friends. We thought he was weird. And Dudley –Harry's cousin -- had no choice but to put up with him. We called Harry a freak all the time, because well, he'd do freaky things all the time. We were all scared of him…"' _Ginny paused."How on earth did Rita dig up this dirt?" she said out loud.

"Experience Ginevra. Continue…"

Ginny felt revolted.

_'"One day when we were eight, Harry stole a cupcake from __Dudley__'s lunch box. It was a pretty rotten thing to do, and well, we chased him into the boy's toilet block and tried to get it off him. Harry dropped it in the loo by accident. Dudley was so mad, so we shoved Harry into the toilet too, tried to make him stand in it. He yelled real loudly and the teacher on duty came in, burly old block, forgot his name…'"_

Ginny felt as though ice was falling into her stomach.

_'"Anyway, we all apologised. We told him that Harry made us do it, because he stole the cupcake so it was an eye for an eye sort of thing. The teacher told us to leave, except for Harry. Of course we skipped out of there, getting off Scot free, but stayed behind to see if Harry would get in trouble. After a minute we heard him whimpering for the teacher to stop hurting him…then he screamed…'" _

At this point Ginny stopped reading out loud, her hands were trembling with rage, but she continued to read silently. A part of her wanted to throw the book into the fire, but another part wanted to read it.

_'We were just 'lil kids. We ran for it. Harry came in late to class after lunch. He had trouble sitting down on his seat. It seemed real painful for him and there were bruises on his neck. Miss Perkins asked where he had been and he said he couldn't remember a thing so she gave him detention. _

_'The next day we found out that burly teacher ended up in hospital with burns on his privates and hands. Said he accidentally dropped a lit match on his crotch and it caught fire. But we knew Harry did that, being freaky and all. The teacher never taught at the school after that._

_'No one ever mentioned it again…we didn't want to, and to this day, I don't think Harry remembers any of it.'_

_Such news of a small boy being subjected to a horrific assault was a shock to even an experienced journalist like me. __Did Dumbledore know that this brutality had occured and took advantage of Harry Potter's vulnerability? Told Potter that he would love him more tenderly than this Muggle teacher ever did?_

"Ginevra…"

_And it seemed for awhile that Dumbledore's dream of loving the boy more deeply was more real than ever before._

_The departed Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, reported last year that Potter had told him, that apart from wanting a convicted Death Eater, Stan Shunpike, out of Azkaban, the boy said what he and Dumbledore got up to in private was between them. That no one had the right to know and that he was Dumbledore's man through and through._

_'Through and through,' was this a quote of loyalty or quite literally was Harry Potter referring to the sexual nature of their relationship? Potter may have been loyal, loyal enough to do what the headmaster wanted him to do, but their relationship had crossed the line of innocent normalcy the moment his parents had died. And as for Albus Dumbledore, there is no doubt he had kept secrets and lied to the boy he had betrayed. Harry Potter had become a broken puppet to do whatever Dumbledore wished him to do and bent his will to satisfy his own selfish lust._

_Whatever the circumstances, some may blame that Dumbledore in his old age, had become so obsessed with the boy that it had clouded all rational thought. Obsessed the prophecy and with caring for the boy to much, that in his mind it was possible that he had confused the basic human protection with lust and had acted upon it. And this illicit and clandestine relational had a vastly detrimental effect on Potter. _

"Ginevra, what's wrong with you girl?"

_Perhaps the affairs had become all too much for Potter. Maybe Potter had realised that this was a betrayal of the worst kind and snapped the night he and Dumbledore were on top of the Astronomy tower. Some have said that Dumbledore had taken Harry Potter out of the castle, conducting a secret mission. However, I have gotten proof that they had never left the castle that night. Instead Dumbledore had made an all too familiar sexual move on Potter as sounds of Death Eaters invaded the castle. Potter wanted to investigate the attacks, but Dumbledore held onto the boy and having enough, pushed the old man to his--_

Ginny stopped, closing the book with a sharp snap, unable to read anymore. She was in tears, hot and angry tears. And it wasn't often she was in tears. That bitch! She thought. How could she write these disgusting stories!

"GINEVRA!" Aunt Muriel yelled, her dangling diamond earring trembled on her saggy earlobes. "Have you gone insane, just like Bagshot?"

"I can't, I can't read this anymore," Ginny replied, getting up. She tried to wipe her tears away, though more kept falling. Ginny didn't want her aunt to see that she was crying. Shaking her head, her red hair tangled now. "This book goes against everything I know about Harry."

"You what?" Aunt Muriel asked she seemed suddenly interested in how Ginny was acquainted with him, apart from knowing Ron was his best friend.

"I like him… I think I love him."

Muriel was speechless for a moment. "You… you really are insane," she finally piped up, standing up from her armchair. "First girl in the family for generations and we've ended up with a dud." Aunt Muriel rolled her eyes.

"I'm not'—"

"I will never welcome Potter into the family," she sniffed. "He's a filthy, evil boy. I thought he was our only hope, but obviously Rita knows what we're up against. Where is he now, Ginevra, if you love him so much? He's hiding like a coward.

"If he was telling the truth, then he'd have nothing to fear from the ministry. He's hiding because he's a queer fibbing murderer."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE! YOU'RE A MEAN—"

"A mean what, Ginevra?" she asked silkily, there was danger in her voice now. "I can write you out of my will faster than you can say bitch."

Breathing huge gulps of air, Ginny's tears now felt very cold on her hot cheeks. "Aunt Muriel… I don't care about your will. I care about Harry and these lies that awful Skeeter woman is spreading about him and Dumbledore that you seem to be enjoying." Ginny threw the book into the fireplace, the fire roaring as the book burst into flames. She stormed towards the doorway and turned around.

Aunt Muriel stared at the burning book for a moment then pursed her lips at Ginny, her eyes as cold as ever.

"And as a matter of fact I was going to call you a tart. Because I know some of your secrets, Aunt Muriel. I've seen your scant black and white pictures in the attic and those letters those men sent you. You were a favourite amongst the gentlemen of society in the old days. I bet you got most of your jewellery as gifts from them."

Aunt Muriel's eye suddenly blazed and for a second Ginny thought she was about to get hexed, but Aunt Muriel, full of surprises, roared with laughter.

"Oh Ginevra, you and I are two of a kind," she chortled.

Ginny grimaced. "I am definitely not like you." Without a backward glance, she rushed upstairs to the attic. She wasn't going to cry anymore. In fact there was fierce determination to block out ever word she had read. There was no way Harry had ever experienced those thing Rita wrote about. She manipulated Figg and that Muggle kid into telling lies. As for Parkinson, Goyle, even Smith, they were always making trouble for Harry. Harry would've told her, she knows he would've!

Ginny was drawn back to the times she and Harry had sat near the lake at Hogwarts, talking about everything. He was really happy. It was always about her, though. She always talked about her, her childhood, her life, her dreams and her hopes. Harry would always listen, his green eyes sparkling, his mouth curved into a light smile. He was more than thrilled just hearing her speak about her life and he'd keep the questions going.

It was at that exact moment, Ginny realised, that she didn't know much about Harry, except for what her brothers and Hermione have told her. Ginny frowned, her forehead now resting on the attic window as a feeling of despair flooded her chest. How could she be so selfish? Harry had never spoken to her about his childhood and his memories throughout Hogwarts. She had poured out her soul to Harry just as she had with Riddle's diary and he had not returned his own. And now… he was out there conducting his mission with Ron and Hermione while Ginny, was stuck not knowing what he was doing.

Never once had she bothered to ask about his childhood. She thought she already knew about his dark past. She never put her hand on his shoulder and asked him soothingly to tell her what his favourite colour is, or coax him to tell her about life before Hogwarts. Was she subconsciously scared that the questions would distance him from her?

Her entire world about Harry started to crumble around the edges. She desperately promised herself that she would listen to him from now on. Ginny was beginning to make a mental note of all the questions she would ask Harry when the war was over.

She cupped her face in her hands and sighed. In her mind's eye she saw herself squinting through the tunnel of cleaned glass. The sky was red and orange as the sun disappeared, the hum of the birds falling into silence as darkness begun to cloak the sky. In the distance, she could see two small figures that would be Harry and she, laughing as they returned home. Arms were around each other… they were happy.

Ginny opened her eyes, tears stinging her soul once more as this time she really looked out through the glassy tunnel. Yes the sky was red, and the birds were fluttering away, but there was nothing else…no sign of joy or love. "At least, for now," Ginny whispered. "That will come later." Again she enclosed the DA coin in her hand… willing Harry to return.

* * *

**Hope you've all enjoyed it. **

**Please review.**


	2. The Broom Cupboard

**The Broom Cupboard**

_This is the second one shot in The Reading Room arc._

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I don't own Harry Potter, JKR does.

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The hardest part had been saying goodbye. Though now Ginny Weasley felt she could begin to move on, with one little step at a time of course.

She watched her brother, George, sitting by the fireplace, pale and quiet, nodding his head to whatever Lee Jordan was saying. Ginny's brother Ron was also with him, keeping a close eye. George's healing would take longer she thought sadly as she moved over to the table filled with food. Losing a sibling to the War was worse than hard… but losing a twin, as George had, would be like having a part of your soul ripped from your body.

Her brother Fred had been finally laid to rest at Ottery St Catchpole's little wizard cemetery, five days after he had died during the Battle of Hogwarts. His body had been placed in one of the Burrow's rooms, washed and nicely dressed in his finest wizard robes. People from all over the country; friends, family and even admirers of Fred and George's business, the Weasley Wizard Wheezes, had paid their respects in viewing his body. Some had brought flowers for the Weasleys and some laid their bouquets near Fred's body. Others brought signs and cards; some funny, some sad. Wizard Weasley Wheezes products adorned around Fred and were spilling out of his pockets. And an anonymous person had placed a toilet seat between his hands, until Ginny's mother took it away.

Now most of the two hundred family, cousins, distant cousins, close family friends, DA, Order of the Phoenix members and Ministry of Magic officials crammed into the Burrow for a moment of sombre tea, before heading off home, to work, or perhaps to another funeral.

Funerals… That's all that seemed to fill the void now, and for a few days more after the fall of the Dark wizard, Voldemort. Or for some, their vigil surrounding the beds of the injured and the tortured or the speaking with those who had been innocently imprisoned or oppressed would continue once they've left the Burrow.

The world around Ginny was broken and the living were left to pick up the pieces and carry on. But how could you when you just don't know where to begin? The destruction around her was more than just physical. It ran deeper than that. It was now a spreading disease that would not heal for a long time to come.

Ginny turned around as she filled her plate, craning her head over the sea of red-haired cousins, all clad in black, trying to locate Harry Potter again. But all she saw was the tight throng of people, holding their plates of food, their whispers hanging in the air of the living room.

She breathed in, moving across the room to have a second look for Harry. At the funeral she had briefly spotted him in the back row surrounding the coffin. He had arrived late with Hermione Granger and Andromeda Tonks with baby Teddy. Ginny only knew that he had arrived by the wave of_ Harry Potter is here_ whispers that travelled around her. He stood quietly, disregarding the looks of awe and admiration from the people around him. Ginny noted how uncomfortable he was with it all, with all the staring. He had never been used to it, but it was now much worse than ever. Neville and Luna had arrived with them as well, happy to stand further behind the star attraction that was Harry Potter.

Now Ginny guessed that Harry, Hermione and now Ron, who seemed to have disappeared from the living room, were sitting somewhere in private, away from the gawking and fawning and the never-ending whispers. She longed to join them… but deep down, even though she was close to them - each in their own individual way, she felt uncomfortable intruding in their tight knit friendship. The war changed things. They weren't children and friends at Hogwarts now. They had experienced far too much to be kids anymore.

Ginny waved to Neville who was speaking with Kingsley Shacklebolt, the newly inaugurated Minister of Magic, as she squeezed past a pair of tall old wizards, deep in dispute about the Elder Wand. Ginny noted that Neville's battered face and body looked much better and healing well. The Currows may be gone, the snake, Nagini, dead, but Neville would have his own demons to eradicate now.

Ginny also saw Headmistress McGonagall and Professor Flitwick whispering near the fireplace. As she past Dean Thomas, she caught a few words he was discussing with Bill and Fleur, something about the now increasingly more strained and turbulent goblin- wizard relationship caused by Harry breaking into Gringotts.

Her mother and father were speaking with Great Aunt Muriel: Ginny quickly walked away from them. The last thing she wanted was to have a conversation with her great aunt, after spending weeks at her house with her exhaustingly eccentric regime and having been forced to read to her aunt, _The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore_. It was a foul book written by Rita Skeeter and Ginny didn't know what to think of it, especially the chapter about Harry and Dumbledore.

As Ginny nibbled on a mini quiche, she spotted Andromeda Tonks feeding baby Teddy with formula milk in the far corner. People had seemed to have made a clearing around Mrs Tonks. Perhaps it was her close resemblance to Bellatrix Lestrange that put everyone off. She was after all, Bella's sister, who had been a sadistic, creepy Death Eater before Ginny's mother had finished her off. However, Ginny couldn't help notice how pale and peaky Mrs Tonks looked. Her red eyes were constantly teary.

It was only yesterday Ginny was at Remus and Tonks's funerals, their deaths so raw it burnt the joy of having their little baby, who was less than a month old. Even hauntingly more so, Ginny remembered four days before, hearing Mrs Tonks's anguished cry when she had entered the chamber off the Great Hall where the dead had been laid to rest in. The hollow guttural cries she had made when she had witnessed the body of her daughter made Ginny sick to her stomach. Her cry echoed even now like a teasing ghost. Ginny shook the feeling of horror off.

"Did you hear what happened to Harry Potter last night?"

Ginny bit into her corned beef and mustard sandwich, ears strained towards this developing conversation. That's all everyone was talking about: _Harry Potter_. It had been days since the War ended, but Harry Potter's story, although still vague to the point of the Gringott's Robbery, hadn't given his side of the story yet. Even Ron and Hermione hadn't said a word about it, choosing only to give details on the final battle itself.

Ginny had no time to ask, because the day after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry left Hogwarts. He had woken from a near twenty hour slumber, his wounds treated, had breakfast in the Great Hall, then shook Mr Weasley's hand, gave Ginny, her mother and George a long condoling hug for the loss of Fred Weasley. He found Mrs Tonks in the chamber with the dead and had a few heartfelt words with her. She cried onto his shoulder, startling him. Then he had left Hogwarts with Hermione, Ron and McGonagall. They had been escorted from the castle by Minister Shacklebolt with a guard of twelve Aurors to a secret location outside of the Ministry, for a debriefing on the events leading to the downfall of Voldemort. Though what was uttered behind closed doors was not known at present. Only rumours made their rounds.

Ginny and her family left Hogwarts that day as well. The war was over. Parts of the castle lay in ruins, dust swirled over them and too much death was around them.

When Ron returned from the intensive debrief to the Burrow five hours later, Harry and Hermione had not come with him. Ron said that they didn't want to intrude in the Weasleys grief. Her mother seemed offended, reinstating the fact that Harry and Hermione were part of the family. But Ginny rolled her eyes thinking, _always so bloody modest, Harry_.

Ron then told them that his best friends were going to stay with Andromeda Tonks. Now, describing that their mother was unhappy at this little detail would have been an understatement. She was absolutely livid.

Ron backed away from his mother's fury and said quickly, that Hermione had felt that Andromeda needed their help seeing her so distraught at Hogwarts. Their help was more important since she had lost most of her family, and that she was burying her daughter and son-in-law who had left behind a small baby to look after.

Anyway, that was what Ron told them. But Ginny suspected that there was more to the story. She later found out that Harry had been reluctant at first to go lend Mrs Tonks a hand, but he knew he had an obligation seeing that he was Teddy Lupin's Godfather. So at night he slept at Andromeda's, but by day he was helping out at Hogwarts with the rebuilding with any spare time he had Then there were the numerous visits to the Ministry he made to tie up lose ends.

The only other time she had seen Harry in person was at Remus and Tonk's funeral the morning before. They only managed to say 'hi' to each other before he was herded off, again rather reluctantly, by Kingsley, for another meeting. Other than those one word sentences they had uttered to each other, the only news Ginny received about Harry was from Ron and her parents and News articles about Harry.

He was a busy man indeed.

"No… so what happened to him?" another woman whispered. "Is he all right?"

"He was chasing Death Eaters that had been trapped at Hogwarts, and one of them hit him with some awful curse. Apparently he was out cold for awhile and lost a lot of blood. I'm very surprised he turned up to Fred's—."

Ginny whipped her long red hair around as she turned; making sure some of it caught the witch in her face.

"Margaret, how do you know about this?" Ginny asked, recognising the witch as her distant cousin. After all, Ginny was sure her father would've told her straight away if Harry had been injured.

Both cousins looked alarmed.

"Oh I forgot, you_ had_ been going out with him, Ginevra," Margaret snidely remarked.

"We _are_ taking a break! If you haven't already noticed, he was trying to save the world this past year, so he obviously didn't have the time to pop over and snog me!"

Ginny huffed and stormed off, plate of nibbles tightly clenched in her hand. She smacked into a body without realising where she was going, the sandwiches and the variety of pastries toppled to the floor. But it jolted her out of her murderous mood. She had half a mind to turn back and shove a dozen sandwiches down Margaret's throat. When she looked up she saw it was Ron she had walked into.

His face and arms were covered with bruises and cuts and burns, but Ginny knew they all looked just as bad.

"Where the hell have you been?" she spat.

"In the backyard, with everyone— what's wrong?" he asked, seeing the angry, bewildered expression she must have had plastered on her face.

She softened up and sighed. "I just heard from one our darling distant cousins—"

"One from Muriel's side, I s'pose judging by your sarcasm—"

"Yes, and believe me, I was happy to go to battle than see her again…"

Ron quickly suppressed a grin, given the fact they were at their brother's wake.

"Margaret said that Harry had been injured last night… is this true?" Ginny didn't know what was true about Harry anymore. She blamed it partly on Great Aunt Muriel and Rita Skeeter and her stupid book on Dumbledore.

Ron blinked, his ears turning bright red. Ginny groaned because she knew this was always the first sign Ron displayed when he was guilty of something or lying.

Ginny pursed her lips, staring daggers at her brother, a hand on her hip. "What do you know then? Spill it!"

"I know that he's all right. He forced me not to say anything—so don't look at me like that. Mum doesn't know- she'd freak out if she knew. Dad does though. But since Cousin Margaret knows, looks like it's all over the Prophet now.

"Mum is going to murder you and dad!"

Ron reddened even more so. "Look, he stayed in the hospital wing last night and he's just told me he discharged himself to come to the funeral. He left without Madam Pomfrey knowing. McGonagall's already told him off about it. He's gonna' be in big trouble if Pomfrey sees him again." Ron shook his head with a weak chuckle. "Don't worry Ginny, he's fine."

They walked through the house towards the back door.

"What curse was it?" Ginny asked, stepping into the early summer breeze, and sunlight bathing the backyard. There was a gaggle of people of the younger persuasion here: DA members dotted the yard in small groups. Katie Bell sat with Alicia Spinnet, and Oliver Wood with Cho Chang. Fred and George's numerous friends and vaguely familiar dorm mates were scattered here and there. Charlie was there with Percy, sitting next to the Patil twins and Seamus.

"Sectemsempra—"

"Seriously?" Ginny knew what results the slashing curse could bring after Harry had used it on Malfoy more than a year ago. Harry was lucky to be alive.

"Like I said, he wouldn't be here if it was worse than you think."

Harry sat with Hermione and Luna. Neville had now joined them, talking. They seemed stunned at the information Neville was relaying to them. Ginny had no doubt in her mind he was talking about the Currows regime at Hogwarts and filling them in on the stuff they missed out on during their hectic year in the wilderness.

"I found her..."

"I can see," Harry replied, looking up from where he sat against a tree. Ginny was glad to see a smile on his face. A spider was happily dangling above his shoulder and she knew if Ron saw such a tiny little thing, he'd freak out.

Harry wore the same dress robes he had worn for Bill and Fleur's wedding, but they didn't fit well on him after months of starvation and made him looked skinnier than she remembered; the hollows in his cheeks were a dead giveaway and his eyes had sunken in a little. She could see that he was pale, almost white, and sporting just as many injuries as Ron. There was a healing cut on his face and a deep bruise on his temple and one on his jaw. His knuckles were scabbed as he absent-mindedly picked at them. His hair was cut short again, though still unruly. Just the way she liked it, Ginny thought. She noted that his green eyes were masked in purple, making him look exhausted and older than his almost eighteen years. He still needed more sleep, she mused. Had he gotten any sleep since the day after the battle?

Hermione interlocked her arm with Ron's as he took his position next to her.

"It was a beautiful funeral, Ginny. Poor George, I've never seen so distraught—"

"Lee put a smile on his face with those rude fireworks though and his eulogy raked laughs," Ron said, reminiscing. "Made mum cry harder though… wasn't sure if it was because it reminded her of Fred, or the fact that it was inappropriate…"

Ginny crossed her legs; sitting on Hermione's other side. She didn't want to sit next to Harry, yet even now he seemed to be avoiding her glances, deciding to stare at anything but her.

Hermione pulled her into a comforting hug. "How are you?"

"Hanging in," she said sadly. "But we'll all be fine eventually…"

"Of course, it's going to be awhile before everyone gets back on their feet." Hermione smiled lightly, squeezing Ginny's hand, but at the same time giving Harry a communicable look.

Ginny wondered what Harry and Hermione's relationship had been like during their year on the run. She felt all of a sudden jealous. She wanted to know the extent of their closeness. But another part of her shook her by the shoulders and screamed at her, _look at how cosy she and Ron are, holding hands. Do you see Ron brushing her hair away from her face? They kissed during the battle! Harry and Hermione are just friends, you idiot! _

_Why didn't Harry seek me out and kiss me too?_ Another voice rang inside her mind. _He almost died without saying goodbye…_

Ginny needed to calm herself, she was being irrational. There was a lot she didn't know. She would eventually find out, but for now, she needed to let everyone rest.

"I think… It's going to be difficult for awhile," Neville said, pulling out a tuft full of long grass. "Grandma's really proud of me… She even framed the article about me… but…" he closed down, deciding not to say what he felt. He grabbed another handful of grass, plucking it out of the earth rather roughly.

"We're all proud of what we've achieved," Hermione piped up, "It's not often that you hear of teenagers helping to defeat an oppressive regime."

The all nodded in agreement.

Luna blinked away her thoughts. "It's nice to finally sit together and talk about stuff… I mean obviously not in too much detail. I don't think we are ready to tell our personal stories just yet," Luna added rather dreamily.

Luna herself had suffered after being kidnapped and held hostage at Malfoy Manor. Had they tortured her as well?

Luna was right though. Each had their own horrific stories too raw to say out loud.

Ginny watched Luna daze off, eyes scanning the blue sky. Neville remained passive for awhile. Hermione rested her head on Ron's shoulder and Harry just stared at his entwined fingers.

Apart from having lost a brother and in constant fear of losing the rest of the family, witnessing, being a victim or forced to participate in torturing students at Hogwarts, Ginny had escaped a lot of the trauma her friends and family had endured. At least that's what she thought. Maybe she did suffer a lot, but she didn't feel it. Ginny didn't feel the full impact yet.

"I've, um, booked my trip to Sydney, Australia, a week from today," Hermione spoke, rather hesitantly. "I went to a travel agent yesterday afternoon and finally booked it. It shouldn't take more than a week to bring them back, I hope. Kingsley had contacted the N.S.W Auror Department to track them down. I have their home address now."

"Are you sure you don't want Ron and me there with you?" Harry interjected.

"No!"

"Bit rich coming from you, Hermione," Ron snorted, "_We have to go with Harry on the _hunt_, we can't leave him alone, he needs us_," he said, mimicking her voice.

_Hunting for what?_ Ginny suddenly thought.

"This is different. These are my parents. I took their memories away and now it's my problem to fix it up and bring them home. I just need to do a little more research. I've gotten a lot of information from Madam Pomfrey about this, and she's referred me to see a Healer at Sydney Magical Hospital's Department for Magically Altered and Damaged Minds and get my parents their specialised help."

"I'm with Ron on this, Hermione. I needed you just as much as you need us! We are coming with you! What airline are you going with? I'll book me and Ron a tic-"

"Ticket on what?" Ron said, confused, "ticket on one of those Muggle flying machines? Awesome! But we can always Apparate there? It'll be a lot easier."

"_Aeroplanes…_ and I will absolutely not Apparate there!" Hermione spat. "We might be proficient in Apparating to places now, but I don't trust us all to travel half way around the world like that! I'd rather go the safe way this time."

"_We_… _us_, aahh, that means we're going too now," Harry nodded to Ron.

_Harry leaving for Australia with his friends and I'll be stuck here alone again_, thought Ginny.

Neville seemed to be intrigued by the conversation. "I'm interested in going too, if you don't mind, I've got a cousin who lives there…" he asked cautiously. "That's if it's ok—"

"Of course it would be, mate! No need to ask, just come…" Ron beamed, clapping Neville on the back. "Luna are you coming?"

"Oh no, I think I must stay with daddy. I don't want him left alone so soon after the War, but it would've been wonderful! There are interesting colonies of Blibbergoinks that hide in creek beds… I believe the locals tend to call them Bunyips…"

Ginny crossed her arms. She knew her mother would not let her go. Harry looked furtively at her, hoping perhaps she would? Her heart quickly fluttered. Maybe she will ask her parents to go on a small holiday. It might do her some good.

"Harry, there you are, may we have a quick word with you?" Kingsley booming, but soothing voice rang. McGonagall was by his side; her eyes quickly scanned them all. Ginny felt as though they were all about to get into trouble

"Er… sure…" Harry pulled himself up, and Ginny noticed how much pain the strain of getting up was causing him.

"Ron, Neville, I need to talk with you as well."

"Us too?" Ron and Neville said together, looking at each other.

Kingsley nodded; walking away with Harry, Neville and Ron scrambled up and followed.

Ginny watched them like a hawk as Kingsley and McGonagall spoke with them. They were all surprised by what Kingsley was telling them.

Neville and Ron were spiritedly discussing their conversation with Kingsley as they sat down again. Harry remained behind. McGonagall was speaking to him now. Ginny noticed how unhappy he seemed.

"Guess what?" Ron started, excited.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, "It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with Auror training and investigating and prosecuting Death Eaters would it?"

Ron's excitement died down, and Neville snorted in laughter at the look on Ron's face. "How do you know?"

"Kingsley approached me earlier on and I said I wasn't interested but would be happy to help in other areas of governing," Hermione beamed. "I'll help when I get back from Australia."

"Yeah that's what Neville and I said too. I wonder what McGonagall's telling Harry now?" Ron craned his neck, surveying his best friend's still frame.

"It might have something to do with what had happened last night. He's pushed himself to the limit. He really needs to rest now." Hermione sighed, watching as well. "I was hit with the curse in the Department of Mysterious… but the Death Eater didn't use the spell correctly otherwise it would've done just as much damage as it did to Malfoy, George, and now Harry…"

"What exactly happened last night anyways?" Ginny asked.

Neville spoke first. "We were clearing some of the rubble that that collapsed in a classroom and two Death Eaters that had been in a pocket within the rubble survived. They cursed a couple of people, Harry chased after them. I followed, as well as an Auror. We found Harry on the floor, unconscious, his back and right side was slashed. Lucky Harry had managed to put a leg locker curse on one of them, but the other one had hid behind a statue, cursed Harry as he cursed the other Death Eater. He escaped after."

"Shit!" Ron exclaimed. "Wish I was there now, but I had to help out with Fred's funeral arrangements."

"Hmm, I'm rather happy staying out of the action for awhile," reproached Hermione.

The discussion between Harry, Kingsley and McGonagall was over and Harry trudged back to their little group, black robes flowing behind in the gentle breeze. He looked more forlorn than when Ginny first saw him.

"What happened, mate?" Ron asked.

Harry did not sit back down with them. His hands were deep in his pockets, shoulders slumped a bit. "I'm not allowed to help at Hogwarts or the Aurors until I've recovered. Either that or go to Hogwarts and be stuck in the hospital wing. Weighing the options McGonagall's given me, I'm stuck…"

"Well maybe it's a good thing…" Ginny said, "You need to get better and you need sleep."

He mumbled something which sounded like that she didn't understand and walked off, entering the Burrow. Ginny felt hurt.

"I think we might leave soon," Hermione said, watching the Burrow's back door close. "I need to do some more research on Memory Charm reversals and possible disastrous side effects and Teddy's nap is due."

Ginny thought she was right about Teddy. As she and Hermione entered the house, Teddy's high pitched squeals penetrated each room.

"Through that room, dear." Her mother had pointed Andromeda and the baby to a spare room beside the kitchen with a fire grate for them to Floo through. With so many people for the funeral, the Ministry had opened up two more fireplaces within to Burrow to the Floo Network to accommodate the influx and out flow of people.

"Goodbye Mrs Weasley. Take care," Hermione hugged her. "We'll be over for dinner on Saturday. Ron's invited us."

"It will be my pleasure dear, anytime." She smiled, but the warmth that usually framed her round motherly face was now filled with sadness. "Harry dear…"

"Goodbye Mrs Weasley." Harry hugged her as well.

Great Aunt Muriel sat at the kitchen table sipping a cup of tea, watching Ginny's mother steer Harry by the shoulders into the light.

"I've just heard what happened to you, Harry." She cupped her hands onto his peaky bony face and felt his forehead. "You're starting to burn up," she added, quite alarmed. "Are you sure you don't want to stay here? I can help treat your injuries."

Harry shook his head, "I'm fine Mrs Weasley. I'm being looked after."

"Yes, but…" her voice turned into a whisper, "Mrs Tonks looks like she's the one who needs looking after… and that poor baby..."

He shrugged, "I'm there for Teddy, and Mrs Tonks has gratefully allowed us into her home."

Her mother pursed her lips. "Harry do you honestly think you can look after him? You're barely of age!"

Ginny leaned against the doorway, rolling her eyes at her mother. Could her mother possibly feel a twinge of envy?

Harry sighed in frustration, quickly looking to Hermione for help. "Mrs Tonks will be Teddy's guardian, not I. I'm just his Godfather. But I know what it's like, first hand, being an orphan and I will do everything I can to protect him and make sure he gets to best start in life!"

"Oh yes!" Great Aunt Muriel chuckled. "After the entire pittance Albus gave you, my dear boy, I'm not surprised you'd want to protect the Werewolf's child!"

Ginny groaned. Aunt Muriel had finally spoken.

"Sorry?" Harry asked, pulling himself free from Ginny's mother's suffocating grasp.

Her mother whipped her head back and just stared into Muriel's face. Her expression could've murdered kittens, Ginny thought.

Teddy continued to cry in the next room. Hermione sighed a little too loudly.

"Oh come on, boy, the whole world knows about you!"

"Knows what exactly? Everyone knows about me! It's a bit hard to get away from that fact!"

"Knows what _he_ did to you—"

"Harry let's go," Hermione urged. It was that point, Ginny knew that Hermione knew. Obviously it was Harry who was in the dark about _The_ _Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore_ book by Rita Effing Skeeter.

Aunt Muriel got up, shook her gnarled finger into Harry's face. "I don't care that you saved us, Potter! The fact you had a sordid relationship with Dumbledore doesn't change my opinion of you! You're damaged goods!"

"Muriel!" Ginny's mother gasped, shocked.

"Er… What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"You were playing_ more_ than just teacher's pet, Potter."

If eyebrows could skyrocket into deep space, Ginny thought Harry's might at that very moment. He looked confused and surprised by such an outburst. Then the realisation of the words hit him. Ginny saw the anger in his eyes.

"You shouldn't speak to him like that!" her mother yelled.

"I can speak to anyone how I want too. Molly, you're a wonderful mother, but think what's best for Ginevra! Do you really want the skeletons this boy has in his broom closet to taint this family even more that's been done through the Wars."

Mrs Weasley roared, "He's just saved us from _You-Know-Bloody-Sodding-Who_!"

"—Let's go, shall we," Ginny said, heat rising to her face, leaving her mother to deal with Muriel. She grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him as far away as possible from her great aunt toward the spare room that had a fireplace for them to depart from.

"You're great aunt is one piece of work," Harry observed as they quickly walked in.

Hermione looked at him sympathetically, biting her lip. Andromeda on the other hand watched on calculatingly, rocking crying Teddy in her arms. She had obviously heard the heated conversation as she waiting to Floo, even above Teddy's cries.

Andromeda brushed away Teddy's blue hair, handing him over to Hermione. "Harry we have to leave, Teddy's tired— Ginny you're welcome to come over to my house anytime you'd like. You're welcome to stay over tonight, if you like."

In the Kitchen, the witches continued to yell into each other's faces. Ginny hesitated. She knew very well what Muriel was talking about but this wasn't the right time to discuss it with Harry, even though she had many questions she wanted to ask him about his childhood.

Ginny touched his arm; he seemed to have calmed down. "Thank you Mrs Tonks, I might pop over soon, if that's ok." She studied Harry's face for a moment.

"Yeah, stay over… Just make sure your mum's ok with it, though," Harry added, whispering, "I don't think she's happy with me staying with Mrs Tonks…"

"Mum just thinks you're her long lost son. She's protective of you. You just do what you need to do. Anyways, please don't worry about what Great Aunt Muriel said. She's a little nuts sometimes…"

"I'm getting used to the nuttiness this world brings." He watched Hermione and Teddy disappear in a whirl of green flames.

Andromeda continued to stare at him as she pinched a bit of Floo from a flowerpot next to the grate, dropping it into the fire making it roar into life again. It was that moment, as the green light illuminated her face that Ginny was a taken aback at how really similar in looks she was to her Death Eater sister, Bellatrix Lestrange. The expression on her face was judging and cold and Ginny didn't like it one bit. When she disappeared, Ginny let out a sigh of relief.

And then it was just Harry and Ginny in the room.

"I've got to go…"

They were alone for the very first time since Ginny gave him his birthday kiss almost a year ago. She waited a moment to make sure no one would enter. The argument in the kitchen had subsided; there was silence, except for the crackle of green flames in the grate.

She waited. He waited.

Ginny looked around and pulled him into the broom cupboard that the room held, wanting a little more privacy. It was small room filled with various amounts of buckets and brooms and a ladder and spare kitchen utensils. Ginny even spotted old broken toys she had had as a child. It was a childhood that seemed so far away now.

"What are we doing in here?" Harry switched on the light. A spider weaved a web overhead.

"I missed you…" she finally whispered, hoping he felt the same way.

The little space they had between them abruptly felt miles apart. Ginny left the door slightly open, this was in case the air became stifling… suffocating.

"I missed you," she repeated again, this time a little more loudly in case Harry didn't hear. Though she knew he had heard clearly the first time.

Harry was silent; he averted his eyes, confirming her doubts about his feelings. _Oh God… _Ginny thought.

But she needed to know right then and there. Harry always needed a bit of coaxing with it came to relationships. She was always the one to initiate the kiss. Ginny even heard that Cho had been the one to kiss him first. It was never Harry first. Ginny stood on her tippy-toes, placed her hands on his shoulders and parted her mouth slightly, moving in. She could hear his rapid breath and she could smell his sharp cologne.

Then he pulled back quickly. "I can't..."

Startled, Ginny almost tripped onto Harry.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered, backing against the wall. He bowed his head, hand covering his eyes, as though one look at her and he might crumble.

She regained composure, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment, meanwhile she was sick to her stomach and she wanted to puke right there and then. _He doesn't love me anymore…_

The silence felt like a vice.

_How could I be so stupid!_ Ginny crossed her arms. A part of her wanted nothing more then to run out of the cupboard, out of the house, and keep running. However, another part wanted to know what Harry was thinking, to tell her it was over.

"Harry?"

But when he looked back, Ginny saw the tears he was blinking back in his bright green eyes.

What she understood then had nothing to do with their intimacy. Her heart suddenly ached; she felt ashamed at her selfishness, this wasn't a good time to want to get closer to him in any sense, but that of comfort and love and friendship.

Yes whatever Harry was feeling about her was different to what she had anticipated, though it wasn't as straightforward as she thought it was a second ago.

She had always imagined the moment she would see Harry again, once the War was over. She imagined and expected him to kiss her, tell her how much he missed her, and how much she meant to him. She may have experienced a lot, but she was naive to think that there would ever be a kiss or a vow of love so soon. Right now, she realised that just because the war was over, it didn't mean life returns to normal. It never does.

She bit her lip, hesitation in her heart as she moved toward him until they were only millimetres apart. She cautiously rubbed his arm waiting for him to make the first move.

He didn't say a word. She could hear his shallow breathing. She could almost hear his frantic heartbeat.

"Whatever it is you're feeling, I'm here for you—"

He nodded slowly, he avoided looking at her. And then he suddenly pulled her into a tight hug, startling her. It was almost too tight for Ginny's comfort.

It wasn't like the condoling hug he gave her at Hogwarts, this was different, and this travelled deeper than words, deeper than what had happened to her family. She knew that if he could, he would've squeezed tighter just so he could get his entire message through. And even if he did, Ginny doubted that he would be satisfied.

This hug was for Ginny alone, and it was a hug that sung of a thousand hurts, and spoke of all his suffering. He had been in the centre of the war, and even though he was a war hero, it had shattered him.

It was a hug hoping that Ginny was the cure he needed.

Now that it was all over, all his emotions, his feelings, his memories had bubbled to the surface… It was all seventeen years worth of wounds and longing breaking free from the deepest fathoms of his mind that he had locked away.

She wrapped her arms around him, and she wouldn't let go, unless he made the first move of course. He needed this, she thought. He desperately needed it. She imagined that her arms were the glue holding the broken pieces together.

It felt like an eternity.

"Are you ok?"

Harry didn't let go. "I don't know," he replied.

"What do you feel?"

More silence…

"I-I feel empty… I was so happy when he was gone, but now… I don't know what to do…"

"It will get better," she whispered. "You never had a chance to be safe. You always felt hunted. It'll take time getting used to security and happiness."

Harry nodded, his head still resting on her shoulder. "It's stupid, but I feel so lost too…"

"Whatever you're feeling isn't stupid at all." Ginny ran her fingers through his black hair, "I'll help find you again."

Then he sobbed. Harry had finally let his feelings out in the form of tears. His arms tightening around her again and Ginny felt his tears on her skin, hot tears trickling into her blouse, turning cold. His sobs racked against her body, echoing through every bone and muscle in her.

"Shhhh, it's ok." She stroked his hair and his back, not daring to even pull a finger away from him. Her mother was right; his skin was hot to the touch.

He lost a lot. More than most, and now the war had destroyed a part of him as well. They will never be the same again, Ginny pondered sadly. There was no happy ever after, just a sort of relief.

"I'm sorry I didn't want to be with you during—"

"Don't say it, Harry, I know." Ginny interrupted. "You needed to do whatever you had too. I would've been a distraction." Of course she wanted to be with him, to help him but it was a lie if she thought anything different.

"When I went into the forest to die… right before Voldemort tried to kill me… you… you were the last thing I thought about."

Ginny breathed out a sigh of relief, tears spilled from her eyes. Seeing Harry dead in Hagrid had been devastating, but knowing now that he still loved her that much, loved her to his dying moment meant the world to her. She hugged him tighter with all the strength she could muster.

"Hey Ginny what are you doing in—" Ron said, opening the door wide. His eyes widened, realising the moment between his sister and his best friend. _"Oh." _

He had enough tact to disappear quickly. Ginny was grateful for that. Even Ron had matured this past year.

Harry was stunned. It was as though he had suddenly woken from a trance and he knew where he was and what he had done. He almost jumped out of her arms.

As Ginny had guessed, Harry broke the hug first. But she knew he hadn't been ready to break it.

"I've really got to go." He wiped his eyes with his robe sleeve.

Ginny entwined her fingers into his before he could escape. "Harry, please get some sleep. I'll be over tonight. I'll be over after seven." She didn't want to be there for their dinner. That would be awkward.

"I have nothing to do now, but sleep and get better," he said morosely as they stepped out of the broom cupboard.

Ginny felt as though there had been a Dementor in the broom cupboard as well as Harry. She felt exhausted and teary. She watched Harry step into the grate, he waved before he too disappeared and nothing but tiny green flames was left behind.

Ginny waved at the empty fire grate. It was then she saw the blood on her hands. Heart thumping, she would need to contact Hermione immediately about it. Harry's wounds had opened up.

Harry's blood… Ginny continued staring at the crimson liquid staining her fingers.

He poured blood, sweat and tears, even his life into finishing Voldemort off. He looked after others, and put them ahead of himself. It was time Ginny helped Harry heal more ways than one. She had after all a debt to pay him for saying her life in the Chamber of Secrets.

Little moments like kisses could wait longer, she thought. What Harry needed from her now was different. They all needed to heal first.

* * *

**Please read and review**


	3. The Makeshift Nursery

**The Makeshift Nursery**

This is the third and final one shot in The Reading Room arc.

In Order of one-shots: The Reading Room, The Broom Cupboard, and The Makeshift Nursery.

**I don't own Harry Potter, JKR does.**

* * *

After Fred's funeral, the rest of Ginny Weasley's day wore on at the slowest pace possible. She helped clear up the living room after Fred's Wake to keep her occupied, distracting her from feelings of her brother's loss, which had begun to creep back like the deadly tendrils of a predatory plant.

Almost everyone had left the Burrow; Harry and Hermione had retreated back to Andromeda Tonks's house. Ginny thought of the injuries Harry sustained the night before, after a Death Eater, who had been trapped at Hogwarts for days after the final battle, had attacked him. Neville had also left. He returned to Hogwarts to help with the rebuild, while Luna went back to her home. There were only a few stragglers who remained, sitting at the kitchen table with her father and brothers. All of them were getting rather tipsy on Firewiskey. No, in fact they were more than tipsy; they were _pissed_.

Her mother huffed contemptuously as she cleaned the dishes with a swipe of her wand. She shot glares at the now drunken boys, men and girls as they sung to Fred's memory, sloshing their alcohol over their clothes and floor.

"Honestly, you're like a bunch of children!" mum yelled, "Just look at the mess you're all making. It smells like a pub in here!"

Percy, Bill and Ron, Lee Jordan and Katie Bell laughed into their glasses. Fleur rolled her eyes, being the only sober one on the table besides Ginny. Professor Flitwick almost toppled off his chair.

Flitwick had joined the little after party as he had always been impressed with the twin's talent with charms and jokes. The twins, in turn, thought Flitwick as their favourite teacher and mentor at Hogwarts.

Ginny's dad sheepishly looked at his wife. "Mollywobbles," he said affectionately, "How about I pour you one?" He hiccupped as he uncorked another bottle of Firewhiskey, throwing the cork over his shoulder.

"Not until night time." She blushed. "Do you really need to be so drunk?"

Ginny hadn't seen a smile on George's face since the Battle. He rose his glass to his mother, golden liquid spilling onto the table. "Fred and I made a pact, mum." George burped. "If anything was to happen to either one of us, we'd toast to their life and get grunk til we, er, got stoopid. Or was it grunk til we. Ahh I can't remember—DRUNK- that's the worrrrrd! Annnn' what else what I going to say? Ahh yes… TO FRED!"

"TO FRED…" they all yelled, raining more alcohol onto the floor. The mop in the kitchen, was working especially hard to magically clean up after them.

"Freddie boy, where ever you are, I just want to say that I miss you… you were always the better half of me…" a tear escaped George's eye and he suddenly became very quiet. He stared into his glass. No one spoke. "But… I was always the better looking one."

They all laughed.

"Mum," Ginny said above the raucous singing that had started again.

Her mother's tender smile wore off as she turned to her daughter. Her eyes were glossy with tears that threatened to fall. "I'm going to stay with Hermione and Harry tonight. I've been invited over."

She didn't ask her mum if she could go, she knew she'd say no, but decided to declare that she was going. Ginny added Hermione in her speech so her mother thought it wasn't just Harry's company she sought out for, making sure she didn't give her mum any wrong ideas.

"Oh," she said surprised. "Well… have dinner first, before you go." Her nostrils flared a bit.

"Is everything all right?"

"Nothing… I just don't- Mrs Tonks and I don't see eye to eye, especially with domestic issues. I've never liked that witch much."

"Why?"

"I knew her at Hogwarts, love. Slytherin traits die hard."

"You don't trust her, even though she was a member of the Order of the Phoenix and she helped Harry? She married a Muggle-born for God's sake, mum!"

"She may be a nice witch, Ginny, but can you really trust her with Harry so soon after the war? He shouldn't have gone to stay with her. He should've stayed _here_ with _his_ family." She patted her daughter on the cheek. "You are still too young."

"Mum! I think you can't get over the fact Harry chose to stay with her over us," Ginny protested.

"_Ginny!"_

She turned her back on her mother and left the kitchen and its rowdy occupants. Her mother was jealous, Ginny realised, at the fact that Harry was staying with Mrs Tonks.

* * *

At seven, Ginny filled her rucksack and pushed Ron's snoring face with her foot as he slept spread-eagled on the couch.

"Whazzupp? Stooophitme," Ron swatted her foot away.

Ginny tsked in frustration. "Well, I take it that means you're not coming with me to Mrs Tonk's house?"

Ron's loud snore was his only reply.

Ginny threw the Floo powder into the grate and followed the usual procedure. "Andromeda Tonk's house," she said. The whirling of green tickling flames made her dizzy but it only lasted seconds. She stepped out of the grate in a nicely furnished living room, and dusted herself off on the welcome mat in front of her. All the flecks of ash from her cloak seemed to magically gravitate towards the mat and vanish within.

"Hello, Ginny," Hermione beamed, playing with little Teddy who was sprawled on the blanket covered floor with plush toys.

"Hi back."

It looked like a normal Muggle house, complete with a telephone and a CD stereo. She recognised them after doing Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. Well that was before the Currows had decided to take over the subject and teach students that Muggles were filthy disgusting scum who belonged beneath the hierarchy of wizards.

"—Hermione, I asked a friend of mine if she had any books on mind alteration and she gave me—Oh, good evening Ginny, you missed dinner."

Ginny blushed, "Sorry Mrs Tonks, my mother insisted I have dinner before I go." She crouched on the floor, feeling Teddy's soft skin on his little foot, and watching his hair change colour to a lovely mauve.

Mrs Tonks's eyes narrowed, but she softened up a second later. "No worries, sweetheart. I have some shepherd's pie left over if you feel a little peckish later on. You can tell me if your mother's is better than mine." She dropped the books besides Hermione, letting her mousy brown hair cascade down her front as she touched Teddy's hand. "Harry's sleeping in the spare bedroom if you'd like to see him now… at least he was sleeping when I checked on him five minutes ago."

"I'll show her where it is." Hermione got up and Ginny followed. "I'm so glad you came. Talk about the tension between Mrs Tonks and your mum, Ginny. Wow!"

"I don't want to get involved, but Harry might better watch out. He's right in the middle of this," Ginny snorted, "Anyways, I'm glad I came. I needed to get out of the house. I haven't seen you and Harry for so long. How is he?" Ginny asked as she climbed the stairs.

Hermione bit her lip, brushing her bushy brown hair behind her ear. "He spiked a temperature this morning after we left the funeral and his wounds cracked open, hence the blood you saw. He didn't want to sleep- He hasn't been sleeping well."

"None of us have."

Hermione nodded. "But he's exhausted! Andromeda spiked his cup of tea with a sedative."

Ginny could see why her mother had some misgivings.

"He really needs to take it easy now, but he refuses too - rather he keeps himself busy helping Hogwarts with the rebuild, speaking with the Aurors, trying to find Death Eaters. I've never seen him so obsessed with getting as much done as possible. I think he just can't keep still for the moment. It's like he needs to be busy, like he's afraid of..."

They stopped right outside of the bedroom.

"Afraid of what?" Ginny asked.

Hermione sighed. "I think he feels lost… and he's not sure how he'd cope with a world without Voldemort. He doesn't want to talk about it. I told him that after all he's been through, it's good just to get everything off his chest and talk to someone."

A part of Ginny felt a sense of empowerment over Harry's relationship with Hermione, because Harry had told her how he felt in the Broom Cupboard.

"He told me how he felt this morning," Ginny said slowly, relishing this bit of information.

"Oh?" Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Well…ah, how does he feel?"

"As you've guessed."

Hermione looked at her sadly. "And just because the enemy is dead, doesn't mean its dead in our hearts and minds. It lives on in a changed form. And when I say the enemy, I don't just mean Voldemort. I'm talking more about experiences, memories, dreams…"

"So he not sleeping because of the nightmares," Ginny said, "I have them. Mum has them. George wakes up screaming every night. Ron too…"

"Ron has them?" Hermione asked very surprised.

"He hasn't told you?" Now it was Ginny turn to raise her eyebrows in amazement. Hermione shook her head; she seemed a little worried now. Ginny continued, "He keeps yelling out your name and Harry's."

Hermione let go of the bedroom doorknob, whispering, "I take Dreamless Sleep Potion every other night. Some say if you drink it too often and suddenly stop the dreams would come back a hundred fold more terrifying."

"Yeah, I've heard that happens."

"Harry drank some, though he chose to stop two days ago. The dreams still broke through the effects of the potion…"

"Are you ok?" Ginny asked, seeing how teary Hermione was. Teary-ness seemed to be a contagious disease affecting a lot of people these days.

"Yes I'm fine, thank you." Hermione closed her eyes. "It's just when I sleep, I see Harry dead in Hagrid's arms- only this time he really_ is_ dead. Then Ron comes into my dream dead… I-I scream when Bellatrix slashes my throat, and I-I-I drown in my own blood. And-and my parents… they hate me. They yell that I'm not their daughter and they don't want to have anything to do with me…"

Hermione burst into tears, covering her face with both hands so Ginny could not see. Ginny pulled her friend into a hug, letting her cry on her shoulder.

"It's funny… I-I thought I would feel better again after it all ended. Like I could relax, get my parents back and continue where I left off with school and life… but it's so different. I'm having trouble adjusting."

Ginny nodded, she felt exactly the same way. Harry felt this way. "It's changed everyone, but I think we've just got to just got to take it on the chin and continue on."

The bedroom door flung opened and Harry stepped out, wand raised, as though ready to fight. "I heard crying- are we being attacked?" His hair was dishevelled and sticking up everywhere, his glassless eyes heavy with sleep. He wore blue tartan pyjama bottoms with no top. Instead his torso was covered in thick bandaging and a thin film of sweat coated his thin arms and shoulders.

"No attack. Everyone's fine, Harry…" Ginny smiled, she was slightly amused with Harry's appearance. "We were just having a little girl talk."

Harry relaxed, dropping his wand arm. "Does girl talk always involve crying?" He rolled his eyes, walked back into his room and Ginny saw three thick ribbons of red blood staining the bandage on his back and side. She almost gasped.

Harry flopped onto his bed. Hermione wiped her tears away as they followed him in.

"How are you feeling?" Ginny asked, dropping her rucksack on a fold up bed near the window. Hermione's single bed was opposite to Harry's. It looked like she had been sleeping in the same room. Ginny was a little put off by this. _Jealous are we?_

"Cold, hot…" Harry answered, fluffing up his pillow and he curled up into a ball. "And I'm bored and sleepy."

Ginny sat on the edge of his bed, trying to smooth a bit of fringe over his scar. He looked up at her and touched her arm. "You have to learn to do nothing. It's nice sometimes."

"That's easier said than done." Harry pulled his hand away. "Ron didn't come with you?"

Ginny shook her head. "He's too drunk. Sorry."

"Git…"

"Yes, he did tell me about their plans to drink to Fred's memory," Hermione said disapprovingly as she sat crossed legged on her own bed, nose already in a book. Downstairs, Teddy began to cry. She smiled. "Ginny you should see Teddy's hair change colour according to his mood and needs."

"It makes things a little easier to understand, though," Harry mumbled, stifling a yawn. "I'm still don't know what to do with babies, though. I still feel like I'm going to break him every time I pick him up."

Ginny smiled. "What do the colour changes mean?"

"Blue hair means his hungry. Pink, he's tired. Green means he needs his nappy changed. The list goes on," Hermione explained. "Teddy loves Harry- his hair turns into a bright purple."

"That's so adorable," Ginny cooed, gazing down at Harry. "I think you'll make a wonderful father one day."

Harry smiled, "I hope so. Teddy can be my practice run." His green eyes twinkled, catching her eye.

Ginny's heart fluttered.

"Honestly," Hermione rolled her eyes, snapping the book shut and picking up another.

"So, um, how long will it be until you will recover from the Sectumsempra Curse?"

Harry shrugged, "I didn't ask Pomfrey… I was too busy trying to figure out how to escape the hospital wing without her knowing I'd left."

Ginny giggled.

"It will be a couple of weeks until he's as good as normal," Hermione said curtly, flipping a page, eyeing Harry reproachfully.

"What?" Harry asked innocently. "_You_ helped me by distracting Pomfrey!"

"I never said it was a good idea! Headmistress McGonagall was furious with me this morning at the funeral."

"Ahh," Harry turned to Ginny, sheepishly. "She's upset because McGonagall is angry with her. Not at the fact that I almost bled to death-"

"_Harry!_ Please, enough about death." Hermione's brow crinkled, not looking up at them.

They fell silent for awhile.

"So, um, what's it like here? It looks like a nice place," Ginny observed, slicing the quiet. The bedroom was light and airy, the lace curtains that hung over the large open windows waved gently in the warm breeze. "How's Andromeda dealing with everything that's happened to her?"

"She's been through a lot," Hermione started. "She's lost most her family and when Harry and I saw her in the chamber at Hogwarts, holding Tonk's hand, she was asking her daughter how she was going to cope. She didn't know how to look after Teddy without them."

"Yeah we saw." Again Mrs Tonk's cries ripped through her mind, making Ginny shiver.

"So I, _we_, offered a hand for awhile, until we got back on our feet. She accepted straight away," Hermione continued.

"And it suited us well, since we have no place to go." Harry pulled his eyelids open in an effort to remain awake. "I have no home to go to and Hermione's house could be booby-trapped."

"But you do have a home! You have the Burrow," Ginny said indignantly.

"I know, but, at the moment I just need something… unfamiliar. I need new surroundings. I just feel that if I went back to the Burrow, I wouldn't know what to do with myself…I don't know… everything feels strange and uncomfortable."

Harry fell into silence. And Ginny sensed that his feelings were confused. She frowned, watching Harry deep in thought.

He had spent his entire life waiting for evil to strike him down; ready to die with courage, instead he watched it kill off the people he loved around him. For many years, Harry knew nothing but fighting, preparation and constant vigilance. Now that the evil that threatened him was gone, he couldn't recognise the world without it. He felt lost and confused and the path ahead for him looked rather hazy.

"It'll get better, Harry. It's hard for everyone at the moment, but I'm sure in a few weeks you'll start feeling better again," Hermione said soothingly.

"I hope so. Kingsley said the same thing and so did Madam Pomfrey. Andromeda keeps suggesting potions for me to try to help me feel brighter."

"Oh. Really?" Ginny spat, she sounded rather judgingly. She could hear her mother's voice ringing in her head. _That woman can't be trusted… she'll poison him!_

"What?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Mum doesn't like her much; she thinks Andromeda shouldn't be trusted."

Harry snorted in derisive laughter. "Andromeda is lovely woman and kind-hearted too... when she's not crying, that is. She and Hermione get along really well. She's really organised and a clean freak at times."

Ginny did notice how tidy and neat the house was, even their room was spotless.

"Actually she's like the magical version of my Aunt Petunia, but nicer." Across the room Hermione nodded in agreement. "Besides, we're not stupid. We sleep with our wands under our pillows in case anything happens. The war might be over, but we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to the Death Eaters who are still out there!

"But really, Ginny, do you honestly think that Andromeda would do something stupid, with a small baby- her only family- in the house?"

Harry had a point.

"All right then, but you need to explain this to my mum. She's the one who really needs to be told," Ginny replied, moving over to her foldable bed and sitting down gingerly to test the strength of the mattress.

The rest of the evening involved chess and Exploding Snap. Ginny brought over Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans to keep them amused. Andromeda later brought up tea and cake and several potions for Harry to drink.

"Bloody hell, it's only five days since Voldemort snuffed it and I already have a card?" Harry scowled when he discovered a Chocolate Frog card of him. Meanwhile his chocolate frog had hopped out of the window.

"Well, you can drink up your misery." Ginny grinned slyly to Harry, pulling out a bottle of Firewhiskey from a secret compartment in her bag.

Hermione uncorked the bottle, pouring the golden liquid into their teacups. She didn't even mention to Ginny the fact that she was underage. However Ginny did notice that Hermione had poured in a very tiny amount into her teacup compared to what she gave herself and Harry.

* * *

The next morning they arose at nine for breakfast. Harry had gone to sleep at eleven, but his night was plagued with a couple of nightmares. He awoke, scrambling out of bed, pointing his wand at an imaginary enemy to the foot of his bed, sparks flying from his wand.

Ginny and Hermione stayed up til four in the morning talking about everything and anything: the Battle, Fred and George, the funerals. The distressing hug Harry gave Ginny and their talk also weaved into their conversation. They spoke of Hogwarts and going back to school. Then there was the love: Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, kissing and girl stuff. It was stuff they would not ever tell Harry or Ron about.

Ginny jumped down the last four steps of the landing and walked quietly into the pristine kitchen with a black marble bench top.

Andromeda has been sniffling in the corner. She quickly hid her handkerchief when Ginny saw her.

Ginny averted her eyes, choosing to stare at the oak table laden with toast, bacon, sausages and eggs. There were beautiful chintz tea cups glinted in the light, waiting to be filled with tea and coffee. Various spreads and cereals in different flavours lay waiting in their boxes on the counter top.

Hermione followed behind, keeping a close eye on Harry as he wobbled into the kitchen in a daze, partly due to his condition and partly due to his hangover. He was wearing a dressing gown that had belonged to Mr Tonks.

"You should be in bed, Harry. I was about to bring up some food and your potions."

Harry waved her off, still sleepy and slightly grumpy. "I don't want to be up there."

They ate quietly and the food was delicious. Ginny would not even dare to tell her mother that Mrs Tonk's scrambled eggs were much nicer than hers, unless she wanted to suffer her mother's wrath.

However, Mrs Tonks seemed to give Harry furtive glances. She looked quite tense and several times she seemed on the edge of saying something to him. Otherwise her conversation with all of them was polite.

As they finished their breakfast, Andromeda finally spoke. "I couldn't sleep at all last night, Harry. I was thinking a lot about you and Teddy and the future."

Harry swallowed his cereal. "And?" Hesitation was in his voice.

Ginny sat up straighter in her chair.

"I know that you have been an integral part in defeating You-Know-Who and that you are the Chosen One and that you have a good heart…"

"But," Harry started.

"I have my concerns." Andromeda stood up went to the pantry bookshelf filled with books, retrieving a book Ginny thought she recognised. "What Mrs Muriel Weasley had touched upon yesterday got me asking questions..."

Andromeda placed the book on the table and moved it towards Harry.

_Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore _

_by Rita Skeeter_

Ginny groaned, Hermione squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, and Harry just crinkled his brow.

"You've got to be kidding?" He spat.

"Harry, I've lost my husband, my daughter and son-in-law… I have no one except Teddy and a sister who's disowned me. I have to protect Teddy. He's all I have left. He's an innocent little child. Please forgive me, but I need to know who his godfather really is. What you've been through will shape Teddy for the rest of his life." She tapped the book in front of Harry.

He was outraged and Ginny was angry that Andromeda would think that Harry would hurt anyone intentionally.

"She manipulated people for their memories of Dumbledore, you do realise that?" Hermione said defiantly, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder.

Andromeda sighed sadly. "I've read and loved Rita Skeeter's work for many years, and yes, I do know she can exaggerate sometimes—"

Harry scoffed, "That's an understatement…"

"Have you read the chapter on you and Dumbledore?"

"Yes," Harry spat out. Ginny hadn't seen him this angry since his fifth year. "I read that chapter and I don't ever want to ever again! It's disgusting and vile!"

"So you deny everything she's stated." Andromeda nodded, bowing her head for a moment.

Harry got up, his chair almost falling back. "Mrs Tonks, Rita Skeeter takes the truth, she rips it to shreds and she fabricates an entirely new story from it. Yes there may be some truth in the book about Dumbledore, but what she says happens between me and Dumbledore is disgusting and completely untrue. What she says about my childhood is malicious and most of it never happened."

Upstairs Teddy began to cry. Nobody moved, focusing on Harry, and Harry focusing on Mrs Tonks with hurt written into every inch of him.

"What _is_ true about it then?" Andromeda asked, not unkindly, but with genuine interest and compassion.

Harry clenched and unclenched his fists. He then raised the back of his right hand so that Andromeda could see the white scars on it.

"_I. Must. Not. Tell. Lies…"_ Harry seethed. "I fought for Dumbledore - he was my mentor and he taught me how to beat Voldemort. He may have done things I still find trouble understanding, but he cared for me. I fought for freedom, for my friends, for a happy life. It's just sad that I have to deal with this now."

"I know, but your Muggle relatives-"

"Mrs Tonks, yes, my childhood was a horrible one... but to even suggest or hint that the way I had been treated as a child would be inflicted onto Teddy is unforgivable! I would never hurt Teddy in any shape or form! I'd protect him and I'd bloody well make sure he'll have everything that I never had."

Andromeda rushed on, "I don't know you well like your friends do. I have to make sure-"

"How do _I_ know that you will love him and protect him better than my own relatives had with me?"

Harry stormed out of the kitchen.

Ginny and Hermione looked at each other as Andromeda burst out crying.

"I'm s-sorry. I'm so sorry, but I had to ask… my p-poor little Teddy…"

Hermione stood up, comforting Mrs Tonks as she sobbed. "Go after Harry," Hermione mouthed silently to Ginny, "I'll deal with her."

It didn't take long to discover which room Harry had hidden himself in.

Ginny, tentatively walked into Teddy's makeshift little nursery. It had always been used as a study, by the looks of it. The walls were an ugly grey, filled with Muggle artworks and a desk. Boxes of toys lay strewn on the floor ready to go onto shelves. A baby themed wallpaper roll stood against the wall, ready for Andromeda to put up once things had settled. A mobile lay waiting to be assembled. On the desk, pictures of Remus and Tonks were waiting to be placed into frames for Teddy to see first thing in the morning, and the last thing he would see before he went to sleep.

Harry watched Teddy, who was now wide awake.

"Are you ok?" Ginny asked, deciding to stand at the opposite side of the cot, looking down at the curious baby.

Harry nodded. "I read that chapter at Shell Cottage a few weeks back, in a stupid moment of boredom when I couldn't sleep. Wish I hadn't…"

"I've read it too. In fact I was forced to read that book to my Great Aunt Muriel."

"I guessed… Skeeter's a vile bitch, Ginny." He shook his head. "To think that she wrote that Dumbledore and I were in that sort of relationship made me sick. It's sad that people actually believed it."

"But a lot of people didn't." Ginny did not want to say that she sat on the fence; not knowing what was true and what wasn't.

Then suddenly the million questions that had swirled around her mind as she had read the chapter, _Dumbledore's Protégé: the Boy who Lived_, to her great aunt, came back to her, roaring like a freight train.

Ginny sensed that Harry knew she had questions she wanted answers for.

"Go on, ask me. Let's get this all over with," Harry said with melancholy.

She couldn't help herself. "She wrote that you slept in the cupboard under the stairs…" Ginny scoffed, thinking it was ridiculous. "I knew your Muggle relatives were bad, but they wound's be that bad, would they?"

She was hoping that Harry would say Rita was wrong about that. Instead he looked stonily back at her.

He sighed, "I'm afraid she's right about that. Yes I did sleep in the cupboard until I was ten."

Shocked, she dropped her jaw. "Harry…"

"I never told Ron and Hermione about that. I mean they knew they were horrible, and that they treated me like I was worse than scum, but I never went into to much detail. What's the point of that? I had to go back there ever year."

"I don't understand why Dumbledore left you there? Why didn't the Muggle neighbours and school teachers ever notice and helped you?"

Harry laughed cruelly. "The neighbours thought I was a terrible delinquent. I dressed badly. I looked like a waif and my cousin and his gang would spread rumours that I would steal, lie, bite, and punch and say that I was a freaky weird kid.

"The teachers didn't notice much: if I had bruises, they'd automatically assumed it had been Dudley who caused them and that was mostly the case, anyway. My aunt and uncle rarely beat me. I mean, there were a few extreme occasions and once Uncle Vernon knocked me unconscious when I was six, but he never did that again. I just learnt enough to know when not to get in their line of fire... Or I just ducked very quickly and ran for it. If I got hurt, well, that was my own stupid fault for not being quick enough."

Ginny felt that Harry was almost defending them.

"That's just horrible! Why did Dumbledore leave you with them?"

"Blood ties," Harry explained with a wry smile, "When my mum sacrificed herself for me, it created a sort of ancient magic that protected me from the evil that had tried to kill me: Voldemort. He couldn't touch me for years because of the love my mother entrusted in me. That blood magic was in her sister too. So Dumbledore placed me in her care, knowing that until I was of age, I'd be protected. That was even though the Dursleys hated me."

"But he would've known—"

"He knew how they treated me." Harry looked down at Teddy, who had let out a cute little sound and began tugging on Harry's dressing gown sleeve. "I wish he did intervene sooner. I spent ten years of my life thinking that I was a worthless piece of rubbish that nobody wanted. I was silenced. And I watched Dudley grow up into a fat bully who terrorised me and other kids. His parents thought he was the greatest thing in the world."

"Oh Harry…" Ginny moved over to his side of the cot.

"If I knew that I was a wizard sooner, If I knew I would be going to a school like Hogwarts earlier, maybe everything would've been a whole lot easier to deal with. But I suppose Dumbledore would've thought what the Durlseys put me through was character building-"

"I doubt Dumbledore would've thought th—"

"Ginny," Harry interjected, darkly, eyes peering above his spectacles, "Dumbledore raised me, knowing full well that I would have to die to kill Voldemort. Even Snape had been shocked-"

"What?" Ginny gasped, confused and surprised.

"I will tell you everything that happened. Especially regarding Snape and what Dumbledore was preparing me for in order to defeat Voldemort, but not now, I don't have the energy to talk about the war and my year on the run with Ron and Hermione."

_Fair enough,_ thought Ginny. "What about that Muggle boy Piers talking about that assault on you by that Muggle teacher in the boy's bathroom?"

Anger flashed in his green eyes. "Lies! None of that ever happened. I have no idea if Piers was making that shit up or if Rita did. I was never hurt by that teacher, _ever_."

Ginny was relieved, she felt as though a weight had been lifted.

"His name is Mr Dodds. And I remember that day well. Dudley and his friends just stuck me in the toilet. Mr Dodds came in and started telling me off, like I had intentionally put myself in the toilet to get some attention. I denied it, pleading to him not to get me into trouble, because I knew that my aunt and uncle would find out and I'd be in a lot of shit. He never hurt me. I went to class late, because I sat in the sun drying my pants. I wasn't going to tell my teacher what had happened to me, because she wouldn't believe me anyway."

"So what happened to Mr Dodds? In the book it says he never returned to teach. Apparently his hands were burnt."

Harry rolled his eyes in frustration. "That had been his final day at school before starting a new job as a Principal at a different primary school."

Ginny was stunned. "I honestly can't believe Rita would write such lies…"

"I've been saying that for years."

"So you were never hurt like that… you were never taken advantage of then?"

Harry closed his eyes, silent. Ginny knew he was keeping something from her.

"Harry?"

He sighed, opened his eyes and smoothed Teddy's now red spiky fridge away.

"There was a childless couple who rented a few doors up. Aunt Petunia thought they were the respectable sort… "

Ginny's chest constricted.

"One day Dudley was chasing me through the street and I hid in their front yard. The man… er… he invited me into his house…" Harry couldn't finish his words. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"_He_ didn't!" Ginny said outraged.

"Not at first, no. But looking back, I realise now that he had befriended me in order to gain my trust and use me. He knew that I was a disadvantaged kid and that nobody cared about me. He saw me as an easy target." Harry whispered these words, perhaps shielding Teddy from the horrors of the world, protecting innocence, as though the baby could understand their conversation.

"Oh God, Harry, I'm so sorry—"

"Don't!" Harry said quickly. "I don't need pity. It was the only time in my life, before Hogwarts, that I felt so wanted… that meant a lot to me then. I had no one, and for a few days he made me feel like I was somebody special, and I had finally had a friend.

"We played chess and board games or just watch TV when he's wife went out. He even ordered pizza. I was eight, and that was the first time I had ever eaten pizza. Then things got pear-shaped… but I let him." He shook his head, his face screwed up with hurt. "I-I let him… because I was afraid that I would lose a person who I thought then, had finally cared about me."

Ginny cringed, she could feel the shame Harry was emanating and it upset her so much. "H-Harry, if you don't want to talk about that, then don't… I don't want to force you to if you're not ready."

"No I don't want to!" he retaliated. Teddy cried out in dismay. Harry backed away from the cot.

She recoiled. "I-I just don't understand why you never told anyone about this."

Harry furrowed his brow. "Would anyone have believed me? My relatives would've locked me in the cupboard for a month."

"I mean why didn't you say anything about this at Hogwarts? People would've believed you there. They would've done something about it."

"Dumbledore knew about my relatives treating me like shit for years. He had his own reasons for doing what he did and I understand that. But what's he going to do with a Muggle who likes little kids a bit too much?"

"But Harry someone should've intervened—"

"Too be honest, I locked that memory away in my mind. It happened, just deal with it, I thought... It was _our_ little secret, he said... And like I said it was the only time I felt like I really mattered to anyone. It's bad I know, and I felt horrible afterwards. I never went near that house again, until their lease was up and they left Privet Drive. I was relieved, happier after. I moved on."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know." Harry turned away from Teddy, picking up a soft giant snitch from the floor that had fallen out of the crib. He looked at it intently, its fluffy wings fluttering feebly. "When I found out I was a wizard, it was a new beginning. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I found friends. I found a true home and people who believed in me and loved me. I found you."

Ginny let out a breath that felt as though a tonne of weight within her heart had expelled from her body. _I found you._

"I only started remembering what that neighbour did, when Occlumency began to pluck out memories I forgot even existed. Sometimes, stupid memories would come to me in dreams. This particular memory came later, during the summer before sixth year… I looked out of my bedroom window one morning, saw the house and I remembered it." Harry realised that he was squeezing the toy and relaxed.

Ginny placed a hand on top of his. Harry talking about his childhood was distressing him, she knew, but he was talking so fast about everything now, it was like a tap had been opened and the water was gushing out with no way to turn it off.

Harry placed his free hand over hers and smiled coldly, looking into her eyes. "What's the use of telling people, Ginny, when I've had bigger things to worry about? Voldemort was on top of my list. I've seen people die in front of my very eyes. I've been tortured. I heard Hermione being tortured. Every person you speak to, you wonder if they can be trusted. Every day I wondered who he was going to kill next. Having the fear that another person I love would be killed is so destructive; it invades every cell of your body.

"Knowing… if I don't do exactly as Dumbledore had instructed, Voldemort would not be defeated for good. Always thinking, when will it be my turn…"

Ginny squeezed his shoulders. "It's over."

He nodded solemnly.

"Have you told Hermione and Ron what you're telling me?"

"Nothing, but the bare essentials…" Harry shook his head. "Hermione knows the chapter is mostly untrue. She suspects that there would be elements of the story that would be true, though. I mean, most the stuff Rita wrote about on Dumbledore was right. She stole the memories, but they're all real. Ron wouldn't read it."

"Ron wouldn't read anything unless it involved Quidditch or comics." Ginny rolled her eyes. Her words then darkened. "You've had so much of a burden to carry, Harry. Nobody should have to go through what you did and to keep it silent all these years!"

"I'm alright, really." Harry scooped up Teddy into his arms, though still unconfident on how the procedure on picking up babies should go. Ginny placed a hand under the baby's head, like her motherly genes had kicked in.

"Really, I am!" Harry repeated.

Ginny looked into his eyes. He was telling the truth and was resolutely determined to move beyond his dark past and the experiences he had suffered through his childhood and the war. _Resilience_… was a beautiful thing.

"But I will tell Hermione what I've told you. I don't think I can bear to tell Andromeda… yet. Please don't say anything to anyone else. When I'm an Auror, I'll discreetly deal with this with the Muggle police. I won't do anything with the Dursleys... I don't hate them. I just pity them. But I hope one day, Dudley will change."

"I understand," Ginny responded, watching Teddy poke out his tongue. "Um, are you going to say anything to Rita about this book?"

Harry thought for a moment, a smile playing ruefully on his lips. "I won't say anything to her, but I know what I'm going to do about it."

"Care to elaborate?"

"You'll find out eventually." Teddy cooed in his arms, his hair turning purple and curly. Harry laughed. "Would you like to hold _my_ godson?"

"I'd love too," she said.

Harry handed him over very slowly making sure he was close as possible to Ginny. She could feel Harry's body heat on her skin. Teddy's hair turned wavy in her arms, and remained purple. She blew him raspberries and told him how cute he was.

There was no doubt in her mind that Teddy was the luckiest child on earth to have Harry as his godfather. Teddy will grow up nourished and loved and innocent. All the things Harry never had. And through Teddy, Harry would have a second chance to experience a childhood he never had because of Voldemort.

* * *

Ginny drank her coffee from her favourite chipped mug. She was getting over her jetlag, flying back from Australia. She didn't know how Muggles did it, flying on aeroplanes. The concept of a twenty-four journey in a small seat irked her. She'll need to drink a Greenwich Potion to set her bodily clock right.

Hermione's parents were still sleeping upstairs in Bill's old bedroom. They were unsurprisingly shocked and angry with what Hermione had done to them. A few of their memories would take a while to come back, but they were back with their daughter, and they still loved her, to Hermione's great relief.

Ginny bit into a buttered toast when Ron spat out his coffee in a spray, which rained on George.

George patted his brow, "Oh thanks, Ron, I was meant to have a shower—"

"Look at this!" Ron yelled, waving the Daily Prophet in one hand. "Hermione did you do this?"

"What are you talking about? How can I do anything? We only got back last night!" Hermione walked over as Ron flattened the Prophet on the table for everyone to see the front page, the headline in bold black writing.

The news was so big, it pushed back Harry Potter Stories, Hermione's parents and their recent Australian holiday bringing them back, the second War stories, Death Eater prosecutions and Muggle-born horror stories to the second and third page of the newspaper. But this News was special…

_Famous Journalist Rita Skeeter Arrested: Unregistered Animagus._

There was a picture beneath the headline with a blonde witch, shielding her face from the camera.

Hermione, Ginny both looked over to Harry. Ron realised as well.

Harry was leaning casually against the kitchen countertop, looking rather natural and relaxed as he sipped his coffee.

He had recovered from the Sectumsempra Curse, and his mood was much better, Ginny noticed.

They all seemed to be moving on now. Their little adventure in Australia helping retrieve Hermione's parents had boosted all their morale.

"Revenge, a dish best served cold," Hermione observed with bright eyes.

Harry smiled knowingly and gave Ginny a cheeky wink.

**Please read and review! I've love you lots if you do.**


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